55522 Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 184 / Friday, September 22, 2006 / Notices 

surrounding environment or CWS 

workers, or be allowed to re-enter the 

water treatment system. 

5. Posting and Labeling 

A CWS operating under enforcement 

discretion must ensure that the 

equipment containing uranium, in 

concentrations greater than 0.05 percent 

by weight, is clearly labeled and must 

provide sufficient information (such as 

the radionuclide present or ‘‘Caution—

Radioactive Materials’’) to permit 

individuals handling or using the 

containers, or working in the vicinity of 

the containers, to take precautions or 

minimize exposures. Areas, such as 

sludge ponds, containing the uranium 

in concentrations greater than 0.05 

percent by weight, should be posted 

with a conspicuous sign or signs bearing 

the radiation symbol and the words 

‘‘CAUTION, RADIOACTIVE 

MATERIALS.’’

6. Criteria for Terminating Operation 

Under Enforcement Discretion 

Enforcement discretion will apply 

until either: 

(A) NRC amends its regulations to 

create a new general license for CWSs, 

or decides to no longer pursue a new 

regulation; 

(B) The CWS obtains a specific license 

from the NRC or an Agreement State; or 

(C) The CWS ceases operations. If this 

is the case, it shall decommission/ 

decontaminate the facility in accordance 

with 10 CFR Part 20, Subpart E, 

‘‘Radiological Criteria for License 

Termination.’’

Enforcement discretion may be 

rescinded if the CWS is not meeting the 

above objectives, or in NRC’s opinion, 

the CWS cannot operate safely under 

the enforcement discretion policy. 

If the NRC modifies or ceases its 

policy of enforcement discretion, the 

NRC will appropriately modify or 

rescind the RIS, and will notify all 

affected CWSs of such changes. 

7. Enforcement Guidance 

Enforcement guidance has been 

developed and is located on NRC’s Web 

site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/ 

basic-ref/enf-man/app-a.html. 

Note: NRC generic communications may be 

found on the NRC public Web site, http:// 

www.nrc.gov, under Electronic Reading 

Room/Document Collections. 

Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 14th day 

of September 2006. 

Patricia K. Holahan, 

Acting Director, Division of Industrial and 

Medical Nuclear Safety, Office of Nuclear 

Material Safety and Safeguards. 

[FR Doc. 06–8012 Filed 9–21–06; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P 

OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND 

BUDGET 

Standards and Guidelines for 

Statistical Surveys 

AGENCY: Office of Management and 

Budget, Executive Office of the 

President. 

ACTION: Notice of decision. 

SUMMARY: As part of an ongoing effort to 

improve the quality, objectivity, utility, 

and integrity of information collected 

and disseminated by the Federal 

Government, the Office of Management 

and Budget (OMB) is issuing revised 

Standards and Guidelines for Statistical 

Surveys. OMB proposed revised 

standards and requested public 

comment on July 14, 2005 (70 FR 

40746–40747). The proposed standards 

were based on recommendations from 

the Federal Committee on Statistical 

Methodology’s (FCSM) Subcommittee 

on Standards for Statistical Surveys 

whose charge was to update and revise 

OMB Statistical Policy Directive No. 1, 

Standards for Statistical Surveys, and 

OMB Statistical Policy Directive No. 2, 

Publication of Statistics. The guidance, 

which applies to all Federal agencies 

subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act 

of 1995, is intended to ensure that the 

results of statistical surveys sponsored 

by the Federal Government are as 

reliable and useful as possible. OMB 

received six public comments on the 

proposed standards and has made some 

modifications to the proposed standards 

and guidelines in response to these 

comments. OMB is now issuing these 

Standards and Guidelines for Statistical 

Surveys as final, and they are available 

in their entirety along with the public 

comments and OMB’s summary of and 

response to the public comments on the 

OMB Web site at http:// 

www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg/ 

statpolicy.html. 

Authority: 44 U.S.C. 3504(e)(3). 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Brian Harris-Kojetin, Ph.D., Statistical 

and Science Policy Office, Office of 

Information and Regulatory Affairs, 

Office of Management and Budget, 

NEOB, Room 10201, 725 17th Street, 

NW., Washington, DC 20503. 

Telephone: 202–395–3093. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

Statistics collected and published by 

the Federal Government constitute a 

significant portion of the available 

information about the United States’

economy, population, natural resources, 

environment, and public and private 

institutions. These data are used by the 

Federal Government and others as a 

basis for actions that affect people’s 

lives and well-being. It is essential that 

they be collected, processed, and 

published in a manner that guarantees 

and inspires confidence in their 

reliability. The statistical programs of 

the Federal Government are 

decentralized among more than 70 

agencies or organizational units. It is 

therefore also essential that, to the 

extent permitted by law, there be 

sufficient government-wide uniformity 

in statistical methods and practices to 

ensure the maximum usefulness of the 

statistics produced. 

The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 

(PRA; 44 U.S.C. 3504) gives the Director 

of OMB broad responsibility for 

improving the usefulness of information 

collected, maintained, and disseminated 

by the Federal Government and for 

reducing the reporting burden on the 

public. Among the Director’s functions 

under the PRA are statistical policy and 

coordination, which includes the 

development and implementation of 

‘‘Government-wide policies, principles, 

standards, and guidelines concerning (a) 

statistical collection procedures and 

methods; (b) statistical data 

classification; (c) statistical information 

presentation and dissemination; (d) 

timely release of statistical data; and (e) 

such statistical data sources as may be 

required for the administration of 

Federal programs’’ (44 U.S.C. 3504 

(e)(3)). The Administrator for the Office 

of Information and Regulatory Affairs in 

OMB has the responsibility to ‘‘develop 

programs and prescribe regulations to 

improve the compilation, analysis, 

publication, and dissemination of 

statistical information by executive 

agencies’’ (31 U.S.C. 1104 (d)). 

The revised Standards and Guidelines 

for Statistical Surveys provide guidance 

for designing, conducting, and 

disseminating statistical surveys and 

studies sponsored by Federal agencies. 

The standards and guidelines are 

intended to ensure that such surveys 

and studies are designed to produce 

reliable data as efficiently as possible 

and that methods are documented and 

results presented in a manner that 

makes the data as accessible and useful 

as possible. 


sroberts on PROD1PC70 with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 184 / Friday, September 22, 2006 / Notices 55523 

These revised standards and 

guidelines replace OMB Statistical 

Policy Directives Nos. 1 and 2, on 

Standards for Statistical Surveys, and 

Standards for Publishing Statistics, 

respectively. These standards and 

guidelines were last revised in 1974 

when they were issued as OMB Circular 

No. A–46, Exhibits A and B. The 

standards were reissued in 1978 as 

Statistical Policy Directives 1 and 2 

when the statistical policy function was 

temporarily relocated to the Department 

of Commerce, and their designation as 

Statistical Policy Directives remained 

when the statistical policy function was 

returned to OMB in 1981 under the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980. 

Development and Review 

As part of ongoing efforts to improve 

the quality of information collected by 

the Federal Government and to update 

statistical standards and guidance, OMB 

requested in 2003 that agencies who 

were members of the Interagency 

Council on Statistical Policy (ICSP) 

nominate representatives to a new 

subcommittee formed under the aegis of 

the Federal Committee on Statistical 

Methodology (FCSM). This 

subcommittee was asked to review 

Statistical Policy Directives Nos. 1 and 

2 and to make recommendations for 

updating or revising these standards to 

reflect current best practices in Federal 

statistical agencies. 

The subcommittee reviewed the OMB 

directives, standards currently used by 

Federal statistical agencies, and 

standards and guidelines produced and 

disseminated by national statistical 

institutes in a number of other 

countries. The subcommittee also drew 

on interagency efforts by statistical 

agencies to develop a common 

framework for their activities in 

response to OMB’s issuance of its 

Information Quality Guidelines (IQG) 

and the requirement that agencies issue 

their own IQGs (67 FR 8452–8460). 

The revised and updated standards 

and guidelines developed by the 

subcommittee reflected the 

organizational framework that the 

statistical agencies used for their 

Information Quality Guidelines. They 

were the product of a careful and 

deliberate process to create a set of 

standards and guidelines that will 

address all key aspects of planning, 

conducting, processing, and 

disseminating Federal statistical 

surveys. Because OMB standards and 

guidelines must cover a broad range of 

applications, agencies are encouraged to 

develop their own more specific 

standards for the statistical surveys and 

studies they conduct or sponsor. The 

subcommittee provided initial draft 

standards and guidelines for review by 

the FCSM and then by the ICSP in 2004. 

The subcommittee addressed the 

comments it received at each stage and 

provided its recommendations to OMB 

in 2005. 

OMB issued the proposed standards 

and guidelines for public comment in 

July 2005 (70 FR 40746–40747). Six 

public comments were received in 

response to OMB’s request. OMB 

reviewed the standards and guidelines 

and made some modifications in 

response to the public comments. The 

final standards and guidelines, the 

public comments, and OMB’s summary 

of and response to the public comments 

are available on the OMB Web site at 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/ 

inforeg/statpolicy.html. 

Steven D. Aitken, 

Acting Administrator, Office of Information 

and Regulatory Affairs. 

[FR Doc. 06–8044 Filed 9–21–06; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3110–01–P 

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD 

Agency Forms Submitted for OMB 

Review 

Summary: In accordance with the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 

U.S.C. Chapter 35), the Railroad 

Retirement Board (RRB) has submitted 

the following proposal(s) for the 

collection of information to the Office of 

Management and Budget for review and 

approval. 

Summary of Proposal(s) 

(1) Collection title: Employer 

Reporting. 

(2) Form(s) submitted: AA–12, G–

88A.1, G–88A.2, BA–6a, BA–6a 

(Internet), BA–6a (E-mail). 

(3) OMB Number: 3220–0005. 

(4) Expiration date of current OMB 

clearance: 12/31/2006. 

(5) Type of request: Revision of a 

currently approved collection. 

(6) Respondents: Business or other 

for-profit, Individuals or Households. 

(7) Estimated annual number of 

respondents: 495. 

(8) Total annual responses: 1,958. 

(9) Total annual reporting hours: 418. 

(10) Collection description: Under the 

Railroad Retirement Act and the 

Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act, 

railroad employers are required to 

report service and compensation for 

employees needed to determine 

eligibility to and the amounts of benefits 

paid. 

Additional Information or Comments: 

Copies of the forms and supporting 

documents can be obtained from 

Charles Mierzwa, the agency clearance 

officer (312–751–3363) or 

Charles.Mierzwa@rrb.gov. 

Comments regarding the information 

collection should be addressed to 

Ronald J. Hodapp, Railroad Retirement 

Board, 844 North Rush Street, Chicago, 

Illinois, 60611–2092 or 

Ronald.Hodapp@rrb.gov and to the 

OMB Desk Officer for the RRB, at the 

Office of Management and Budget, 

Room 10230, New Executive Office 

Building, Washington, DC 20503. 

Charles Mierzwa, 

Clearance Officer. 

[FR Doc. 06–8049 Filed 9–21–06; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7905–01–P 

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE 

COMMISSION 

Proposed Collections; Comment 

Request 

Upon Written Request, Copies Available 

From: Securities and Exchange 

Commission, Office of Filings and 

Information Services, Washington, DC 

20549. 

Extensions: 

Form F–7, OMB Control No. 3235–0383, 

SEC File No. 270–331. Form F–8, OMB 

Control No. 3235–0378, SEC File No. 

270–332. 

Notice is hereby given that pursuant 

to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 

(44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.) the Securities 

and Exchange Commission 

(‘‘Commission’’) is soliciting comments 

on the collections of information 

summarized below. The Commission 

plans to submit these existing 

collections of information to the Office 

of Management Budget for approval. 

Form F–7 (17 CFR 239.37) may be 

used to register under the Securities Act 

of 1933 (15 U.S.C. 77a et seq.) securities 

offered for cash upon exercise of rights 

that are granted to its existing 

shareholders of the registrant to 

purchase or subscribe such securities. 

The information collected is intended to 

ensure that the information required to 

be filed by the Commission permits 

verification of compliance with 

securities law requirements and assures 

the public availability of such 

information. Form F–7 takes 

approximately 4 hours per response to 

prepare and is filed by 5 respondents. 

We estimate that 25% of 4 hours per 

response (one hour) is prepared by the 

company for a total annual reporting 

burden of 5 hours (one hour per 

response × 5 responses). The remaining 


sroberts on PROD1PC70 with NOTICES